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The boundaries between the Northwest Cambridge survey area and the rest of Cambridge follow the natural topographic division between Old Cambridge and the northern and western portions of the City, running from Porter Square to Mount Auburn Cemetery behind Avon, Observatory and Reservoir Hills, following the line of Upland Road to Huron and Aberdeen Avenues. The outer boundaries of the survey area are defined by the municipal limits of Cambridge at the Somerville, Arlington, Belmont, and Watertown lines (Fig. 2).The survey uses the term Northwest Cambridge to include two distinct areas: NorthCambridge and West Cambridge. North Cambridge and West Cambridge are 19th century names that have been expanded from their original conception to include the NorthwestCambridge survey area. The name North Cambridge was originally applied to the suburban neighborhood that formed around Porter's Station in the 1840s, the area now defined as Porter Square. The designation was expanded as the neighborhood developed along Massachusetts Avenue, so that at present North Cambridge covers the entire residential area from Porter Square to Alewife Brook, including the former Dublin neighborhood along Rindge Avenue and Sherman Street. West Cambridge was originally the name of Arlington, the town formed in 1807 from Cambridge's second parish of Menotomy, west of Alewife Brook. In recent decades West Cambridge has been the name of the industrial and commercial zone around Concord Avenue, Alewife Brook Parkway and Route 2, and is used in this report to include the area around Fresh Pond to Cambridge Highlands and Strawberry Hill.Each of the two areas developed a unique character based upon the inherent qualities of the natural topography. The fertile plain of North Cambridge became prime agricultural land in the colonial period and choice residential land in the suburban era, while the Fresh Pond swampland of West Cambridge began as peripheral grazing land, and was transformed into fringe industrial land during the last century. While each area has developed a distinctive landscape, both North Cambridge and West Cambridge have evolved compatibly. An interrelated cast of individuals — farmers, entrepreneurs, surveyors, builders and developers — has given Northwest Cambridge a unity which binds the landscapes of the survey area

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